2010, Looking Back: To Republicans, It Was So Much More Than Just a Speech to Kids

by Noah

Remember when Republicans used to talk about respect for the office of the President of the United States? For the second year in a row, due to the paranoid twilight zone that is their minds, many Republican parents still didn’t want their kids hearing or seeing President Obama’s back-to-school speech. It would be hard to find a stance on any issue that reveals the utter lunacy of average Republicans more than this one. The president’s speech consisted of him telling kids to show up for school on time, study hard, never quit school, and accept challenges, and that more life possibilities are open to those who get an education.

“Hell no, you can't! We don’t want that! We don’t want none of those learnin’ things!”

Before President Obama even gave his talk again, a runaway forest fire of hateful words not only greeted it, but revealed so much about those who feel that, for whatever reason in their dark little minds, he has no right to be where he is.

Old traditions die hard, especially when the drums of racial politics are being beat so furiously by the opinion setters at Fox, at Newsmax, and all too numerous other far right media outlets. Behind much of this manufactured controversy lies the skin tone and even the name of the current president. Having an educated, successful black man as a sitting president living in the White House with his lovely family runs contrary to basic Republican beliefs and, even moreso, their propaganda.

The continued vituperative [look it up, Sarah P.] drum-beating on the speech got even sicker when you considered that 2010 was the second time President Obama was speaking to schoolchildren. He had given the speech in 2009, and there was no recruiting to socialism or islam or gayness. Likewise, dastardly and revolutionary concepts like equal pay for women and voting rights were not mentioned. Republicans knew what Obama was going to say. This speech to schoolchildren is the same every year, regardless of who is president. There are only two differences in this case, and that is skin tone and an “un-American name.” The message that Republicans want to give their children is that we, especially our children, should not be listening to what an “other” or a black man has to say. After all, Obama might in no time have them wearing dashikis, listening to jazz, and smoking dope.

Here’s Newsmax columnist, psychotic hate-monger, and frequent guest on Fox Pam Geller as she weighed in back in March on the president’s speech to public-school children. She also just happens to be the person who proudly started the whole New York “mosque” controversy.

If you’re a child in public school in Obama’s America, watch out. Obama said he was going to build a civilian army -- and he’s using our children. He is recruiting in public school classrooms: I exclusively broke the story about his group Organizing for America is recruiting in the classroom. But Americorps is the primary machinery for his youth army. There is huge dough behind it -- yours and mine. And that money is now being used to mandate service programs that indoctrinate our children to work for “the common good” i.e. socialist internationalism.

Perhaps Geller “exclusively broke the story” because it only existed in her sick mind, but she has a pulpit, and impressionable folks listen to her. We’ve seen their signs at Teabag rallies. We’ve heard their speeches. We can also hear Rush Limbaugh’s take on race nearly every day. Things like ”service programs” and “common good” are terrible concepts to Republicans, and have been for a hundred years. “Youth army”? These people spit out the president’s full name with seething anger, emphasizing the middle one, which means "blessing," by the way, to emphasize their warped concept of “other.”

The mad ravings of people like Geller and Limbaugh were once heard only in mental hospitals or in an alley next to a Dumpster. Now they get prime-time TV positioning with the backing of billionaires.

Given what we hear from Republicans, whether it’s Senator DeMint, or Senator Sessions, Herr Beck, or the aforementioned Limbaugh and Geller, normally adjusted people can’t be blamed for thinking that, to most Repugs, the only suitable job option for a black male in this country is making license plates in prison or “going back to Africa” to be a witch doctor. There was, however, at least one at least somewhat prominent Republican who expressed concern in 2010 about his party’s racism: Jim Greer, a former state party chairman of Florida, of all places. Herwrote to the Miami Herald saying:

In the year since I issued a prepared statement regarding President Obama speaking to the nation’s schoolchildren, I have learned a great deal about the party I so deeply loved and served. Unfortunately, I found that many within the GOP have racist views and I apologize to the President for my opposition to his speech last year and my efforts to placate the extremists who dominate our party today. My children and I look forward to the president’s speech.

I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Greer to be allowed to run for office again as a Republican. It’s also too bad that he couldn’t find it within himself to say something positive in 2009 instead of this more typical Republican mantra:

. . . taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.

If you follow this link to the Miami Herald, you just might find that Greer’s apparent change of heart may be due less to conscience than to revenge, but hey, better late than never, I suppose.

I wouldn’t say, as Greer did, that the Republican Party is dominated by extremists. The reality is that it is extremist by definition, period. Having a black man in the White House is more than they can take. As evidenced by near-gibberish, “speaking in tongues” ravings like Geller’s, it has driven most of them into a state of permanent apoplexy. Once again, they are on the wrong side of history, and they are fighting mightily against history’s tide with all the ugliness they can muster. 2010 was the first year in which more nonwhite babies were born in our country than white babies. Sadly, that scares the bejesus out of Republicans as they scream about wanting their country back.

A word to Republicans everywhere: Being a living fossil is never a good long-term strategy, or even strategery, as their former leader used to say. It’s time for Species Republicanis to evolve. Unfortunately, they don’t believe in evolution either.


NOAH'S YEAR 2010 IN REVIEW

Again, after his heroic 12 Days of Christmas Scorn last year, this year Noah is taking his year-in-review lookback in installments, beginning with yesterday's "10 Random Musings."

#

Newt Gingrich Has Second Thoughts But Geert Wilders Flying To The U.S. To Help Pamela Geller Spread Hatred & Fear on "Hallowed Ground"

Having lived in Holland for 4 years, I took it on myself early to warn Americans about vicious professional Islamophobe and hatemonger Geert Wilders, knowing that it would just be a matter of time before he would be adopted by the fringe elements of the American right. Predictably, Arizona terror-supporter Jon Kyl was the first to bite and he was invited to address a fascist rally in Washington last year, CPAC, where he could mingle with Ann Coulter, Michele Bachmann, Virginia Foxx, Jim DeMint and other politicians who use hate and fear as their calling cards.

Now Wilders has joined forces with deranged American hatemonger (and profiteer) Pamela Geller who has invited the far right Dutch politician to address her Stop Islamization of America and Freedom Defense Initiative on-- when else-- September 11. It's disgusting that NY authorities allow hate rallies on hallowed ground. With even the most craven Republican political hacks like Newt Gingrich and Peter King, seeing which way the wind is blowing and fleeing from Geller, she's going to be stuck with a real bottom of the barrel group of speakers-- flotsam and jetsam like Bachmann and Steve King. And Wilders. Gingrich, after first bragging how he would be there, backed away when mainstream conservatives started realizing that trashing the Constitution might be a bad idea in retrospect. Gingrich offered a video greeting, which Geller greedily accepted. He's now withdrawn even that offer.

Joe Scarborough, a former House Republican and host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, described Gingrich’s remark as "madness.” And conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, a former presidential candidate, said “bringing the Nazis into the argument is always absurd in American politics.” Buchanan also suggested that Gingrich was trying to attract national attention to himself for a 2012 presidential bid.

...Wilders' website touts his appearance and the advertised attendance of Gingrich as "two eagles" who together can capture the mainstream media's attention on the mosque controversy. "Then there is speculation about Gingrich making a possible 2012 run for the GOP Presidential nomination," an Aug. 6 release on the site states. "It is not lost on many that Gingrich has come out in favor of national anti-Sharia legislation."

Wilders generated controversy on Capitol Hill last year when he screened his documentary film Fitna at the invitation of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). The short film shows verses of the Koran interspersed with extreme acts of violence, including the hijacked planes flying into the World Trade Center.

The Dutch politician's outspoken criticism of Islam has generated scores of death threats over the years and he lives under 24-hour security protection. The British government prohibited him from entering the country in February 2009, a ban later overturned following an appeal by Wilders. And the politician is currently on trial on hate-speech charges in the Netherlands, where he has called the Koran a "fascist book."

"I will go to New York and say what I want there,” Wilders told Dutch media. “Nobody will stop me. No mosque at Ground Zero!”

So only one of the crusading eagles will be joining sociopath Geller-- and the Dutch government is, to put it mildly, embarrassed and "has launched a damage-limitation campaign to try to counter what it fears is the disastrous international impact of the Islam-bashing populist Geert Wilders."

Maxime Verhagen, the acting foreign minister and Christian Democrats' leader, has voiced fears that Wilders's speech in New York will tarnish Dutch reputations. He has also taken the unusual step of circulating confidential orders to Dutch diplomats around the world on how to answer questions about Wilders's influence in a new government and on the fallout for Muslims in the Netherlands.

With characteristic robustness, Wilders has told Verhagen to mind his own business. He clearly intends to grab attention with a tub-thumping exercise in Islamophobia in New York.
"Good feeling. Important speech. No one will stop me. No mosque at Ground Zero," he tweeted after booking a flight to New York. "Stop Islam, defend freedom" is his rallying cry.

The tensions over 9/11 and New York come as Wilders savours his growing clout at home. His Freedom party is running at 31% in the most recent opinion poll, ahead of all other contenders, and he has spent most of this week at a secret location with Verhagen and Mark Rutte, the liberals' leader, haggling over the terms for a new coalition government.

Wilders, whose party almost tripled its seats, from nine to 24, in the June election, is not joining the new cabinet. Instead, he will prop up a rightwing coalition of liberals and Christian Democrats in return for pledges of a tough new crackdown on immigration and other policy concessions. If the talks succeed, Wilders will be in the enviable position of wielding power while abjuring responsibility.

The negotiations have been going on for a fortnight and are supposed to be concluded next week. But they are said to be going badly.

A coalition backed by Wilders would command the slimmest of majorities-- 76 seats in the 150-seat second chamber or lower house. The Trouw newspaper yesterday reported at least one dissident Christian Democrat MP would not support it, making it unviable.

Verhagen is in a difficult position. While negotiating with Wilders, he is also telling his diplomats how to undermine the rightwing maverick. Verhagen faces mounting resistance within his own party to collaborating, even if only tacitly, with Wilders.

Last week German Christian Democrats joined Dutch party dissidents in calling for a boycott of Wilders.

The Real Rainmen

-by Noah

“What a terrible thing it is to lose one’s mind”
          -Former (thankfully) Vice President Dan Quayle

When this whole mosque/cultural center nonsense began to be trumped up out of nothing by the right wing element and their hack media outlets, I wasn’t going to write anything about it because I felt it was getting plenty of exposure, but then, I started thinking it’s not just about the mosque story but also about what this story says about the minds of those who vote Republican. Obviously, this is about more than just a mosque. It’s also more than just a wedge issue. It leads us to the horror of what Republicans are at their core. It’s about people who always need someone to hate. They are addicted to it. The only thing worse than a new mosque to a Republican this week would be a new mosque built by married gay couples who are about to retire and collect their Social Security and Medicare.
 
The mosque insanity is 2010’s Terry Schiavo “crisis,” pushed forward by the usual gang of republikook congressloons and mediagoons. Should we ban Catholic churches being built because of the actions of some pedi-priests? Are ALL Catholics evil because of the actions of a few? Did we send all Germans back to Germany because of the Nazis? No. In fact, after the war, we brought many of them here. To the Republican mind, however, there is a difference. That difference is one of skin tone, beards, burkas, even “strange ways” and stranger sounding names; names like Barack Obama, for instance. The loon squads, all ginned up and infoxicated, say the ground for the mosque is “hallowed ground.” In the first place, the proposed mosque location is at least two blocks away: not even within sight of Ground Zero. It is, in the real reality of us non-Republicans, the location of an abandoned coat factory. This is just another example of the Republican Big Lie Machine. In the second place, the idea of a mosque on hallowed ground gets the loony emotions going but, self-righteous though they may be, they apparently have zero problem with the strip clubs and porn emporiums like The Pussycat Lounge on that same “hallowed ground;” very selective, doncha think?

And, I wonder, how far would be good enough for such people? How far? Try this: The American Family Association is already putting out the idea of no mosques in America, period. What’s next for the Repugs? No temples of any kind. No Synagogues, just Southern Baptist churches? Just Snake Handler churches?
 
What are normal, well-adjusted people to think about the confused mixed signals that emanate from the deranged and damaged minds of today’s Republicans? I’m struck by the idea that we spent billions, sacrificed the lives of thousands of young Americans, and murdered tens of thousands of Iraqi people (Yes, Republicans, if you are lurking and reading this, Iraqis are people) all in the name of liberating them, all in the name of freedom, even allowing many of the dispossessed to come here, even to New York City itself, just as decades ago, we allowed Vietnamese to come here after another ill-reasoned war. When Bush and Cheney were speaking of liberating and flowers and freedom, they said nothing about limiting freedom of religion. Even Bush’s former advisor Mark McKinnon said on Morning Joe on Monday that President Obama did the right thing when he actually showed some leadership and spoke up in defense of our Constitution. So, why do we sacrifice, and liberate and talk about freedoms for people of the Muslim faith, then do a switcheroo and say no to building a mosque? It seems to be an obvious contradiction to me, but, if you are deranged, not so much. Gee, I always heard that Republicans support our troops. A whole lot of good people died so that Americans could have freedom of religion. You might even say that it was one of the reasons this country came to be. This is worth watching again:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

One of the gripes of the loonies is that the Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, of the proposed mosque and cultural center, or Dreaded Victory Mosque Spy and Plotting Center, as the wackies think of it, has a fundraising association with Saudi Arabia. The Bush Crime Family’s business associations and the Carlyle Group’s relationships with the same country don’t seem to bother these same people. Nor do Darth Cheney’s or his Halliburton’s relationships with Dubai seem to matter, only the Imam’s.

Republicans seem to have an almost idiot savant talent for focusing obsessively on certain specific minutia to the exclusion of any other pertinent information that might provide a more complete picture or a clear view of reality. That’s easy to do when you are fighting mightily to see the world only as you want to see it. It’s the key to how they do their messaging so well. If something just doesn’t fit the world as they want it to be, they toss it and throw a fit just like a petulant child would when confronted by a parent or sibling doing something that didn’t fit the child’s plan for the day. This is more than just childish behavior, though, because it is perpetrated by adults who have learned just enough to be able to manipulate those who don’t have the time, inclination, or experience to gain or process enough information that would give them a bigger picture. If you want to see something a certain way, it’s easy as long as you can exclude chunks of reality. You start with a preconceived notion that enables your hate, and you ditch any contradictory evidence. You can even ignore all of the American Muslims that died in the towers as though they didn’t exist or, more likely to Republicans, they didn’t matter. It doesn’t even phase these people that, after 9/11 happened, one of the first things George W. Bush did was urge Americans, even Republican ones, to not blame ALL Muslims for 9/11, reaching out to Imam Rauf for help with communication with the American Islamic community. That’s just an inconvenient truth to be tossed away like so many others. This is not to say that the Bush White House wasn’t guilty of the same thing when they went and leveled Iraq. Remember when the Bush White House used to tell us that they weren’t in the reality-based community; that they would create their reality and tell us what that reality is? Case in point: Iraq is full of WMDs with our names on them. Iraqi mushroom clouds, as Condaliza Rice said. To them, it was “real.” Damn the tons of evidence to the contrary. They were arrogant and delusional enough to actually believe it. How’d that work out?

It’s no coincidence that HAMAS said nothing about the mosque issue until President Obama uttered something in support of it. They were strangely quiet. Then, when the President actually for once demonstrated some leadership and spoke up in defense of our Constitution, it looked to the terror world that America might show some tolerance for Islam. That is something that weakens the position of the Arab shit-stirrers. Just as the Republican party needs an enemy in Obama because they have no policies or solutions to our myriad problems other than to continue looting the Treasury for their own personal gain, groups like HAMAS need a big boogie man of an enemy or else they’re out of business too, and the United States fits the bill. Likewise Osama bin Laden needs to show the Arab world that the United States is an enemy not just in the Arab world but in the American homeland as well. Demonstrations of intolerance of Islam by us make his recruiting that much easier. Bin Laden would dearly love for us to forbid the mosque. Obviously, given that, one has to wonder just who those who propagandize the minds of the right are really working for, consciously or not.

For the Republicans, this can be seen as yet another example of their vision of a tiered class-divided society where some have rights that others do not. This is also a game of political gain for them, and, financial gain from the corporate swine that invest in them with lobbying bribes and “campaign contributions." As I write this, Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp (FOX) has just given the Republican Party $1,000,000. For the Republicans, a loss of our security is their gain as much as a ruinous tax code that benefits the top 2% while enslaving the middle and working classes. For Arab terrorists, this is a game of advancing an agenda and growing their size and power. Strange bedfellows? 
 
What of the chief spokescreeps in all of this? Newt Gingrich is a coward. He’s an educated man. He even has a PhD in history, but he’s a sick man, as evidenced by the way he treats the women in his life and the way he distorts history to fit the world he wants to control in more ways than one. He can even separate what he says from what he does. He doesn’t like just being in the passenger seat telling Tom Cruise “I’m a very good driver.” He wants the wheel soooo bad. Better put him in the back seat. Better yet, put him in the trunk, and do it on a very hot day. Sarah Palin? It would be easy to dismiss her as some 14 year old who pipes up at a family get-together and says something excruciatingly embarrassing to those who know better, something that, if she remembers later on in life, may really embarrass her. Yeah, it would be easy to dismiss her if not for the fact that so many people hang on her simpleton words as if she were a bad guy version the Peter Sellers character in the great movie Being There. Rush Limbaugh? What can you say about someone who is such a blowhard that he thinks the Japanese are Hindus? Eric Cantor? Here he is on the far right’s National Review Online site:

“Everybody knows America’s built on the rights of free expression, the rights to practice your faith, but come on…”

Glenn Beck? The pied piper of crazy? When he finally starts speaking in tongues one day on live TV and can’t stop as he falls to the floor spinning around faster and faster and foaming at the mouth, maybe then some of his deluded followers, at least, will realize they’ve been foolish to the max. Some, of course, will proclaim it a miracle and deify him. Sean Hannity? There’s enough smoke of white supremacy connection to indicate a 7 alarm fire, but it seems that most Republicans are right comfy with that. I won’t even begin to describe Michelle Bachman. Just look at her eyes. You don’t even need to have the sound on. Then there’s Pam Geller, a stone crazy New York answer to Orly Taitz, and then some. She’s a birther, a deather, runs her own blog.

She is also a blogger for the laughable Newsmax and is one of the Republican Party’s shrillest 360 head-spinning spokescreeps. It’s hard to read any of her scribble without quickly realizing that you are in the presence of someone who is truly unhinged. It was Geller who started the whole anti-mosque crusade, even buying anti-Islam ad space on New York City buses. Crazy is as crazy does. But hey, let me just go back to Newtie. Compared to Geller, he almost seems sane or maybe only evil. Newt Gingrich, for all of his education, is, as I said, a coward. Why? Because he knows the Constitution that the others in this sad troop blithely mention every damn day. He knows it, but he lacks the guts to stand up for it. He’d rather pander. That’s no surprise for a man who can’t even face himself. Just ask his ex-wives.
 
Republicans like to say they support the troops. That seems to go double for Republican politicians who avoided putting on a uniform because they have “other priorities” to quote Dick Cheney. Then Republicans turn around and do things like deprive vets of benefits and dishonor those who did go to fight for The Constitution and all of the rights it holds. Republicans like to carry around their pocket Constitutions and wave them for the cameras like they used to wave flags to say they were more patriotic than thou back in the Reagan and Nixon eras. But, when the President of the United States speaks out in defense of a Constitutional right like President Obama did, they go all hissy fit. Al Qaeda can’t tear up our Constitution in the name of hate, but we can if we follow the Republican lead. Hey, Repugs! Repeat after me, President Obama! Say it again, even draw it out, P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T OBAAAAMA. Does it give ya chills? Good.
 
Republicans also like to spout off about state’s rights, “it’s a local issue,” etc. Here in NYC, the city community board voted in favor of the mosque, 29-1. I bet the board even sees it as a good real estate development deal for the immediate neighborhood. So, dear Repugs, butt out. Stop your political carpet-bagging and butt out. Take your Stalinism elsewhere. In fact, why not shove it up your ass? If that’s too damn harsh for you, you wouldn’t last a day in New York City.
 
The whining right is even asking where the money for the center is coming from. New York Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, who twice got elected as a Republican, then ran as an Independent when it became apparent that being a Republican and carrying all that crazy baggage again would doom his chances at a third term.

“I don’t know and government shouldn’t-- do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, ‘Okay, now, you know, where do you come from? Who are your parents? Where’d you get this money?’”

Well, of course, the Republican mind does want to know. Let’s face it, if they are so obsessed with who you are sleeping with, who you want to marry, what kind of music you’re into, what books you read, and which PC god you worship, they’ll certainly want to know everything else about you, too. The irony for the Repugs is that, with all their whining, they have guaranteed that the money to build the center will now be flowing in like a tide of BP’s best hitting the shores of Louisiana. Money will be coming from everywhere. Nice work, loonies! Can I hire you next time I want to raise some cash? Please, say something bad about me so I can hang my sign out, too! What a bunch of losers; a whole damn party of whining, pathetic, mental defective, dumbass losers. I mean, come on!

Mosque Madness-- Republicans With No Brains And No Souls vs Democrats With No Spines

Pamela Geller, drummin' up the hatred on the GOP's Fair & Balanced campaign donor station

J Street has been a leader in trying to get cowardly political leaders to take decent stands on one great big third-rail issue, an equitable two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. They do outstanding work. And I was proud to see them working with Joe Sestak, for example, and helping to make sure he was aware of all the basic arguments in the Republican/Fox manufactured controversy over the Muslim community center a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. Like Alexi Giannoulias, the Democrat running for the Illinois open Senate seat, Sestak came out for freedom of religion and ignored the deranged and hysterical Newt Gingrich Nazi analogies. J Street's statement on the ginned up controversy came out almost three weeks ago and still makes a lot more sense than the banshee cries of Republicans hoping they can squeeze one more victory out of the dead bodies of Bush's 9/11 catastrophe:

The principle at stake in the Cordoba House controversy goes to the heart of American democracy and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.

As Mayor Bloomberg has said, proposing a church or a synagogue for that site would raise no questions. The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so. We would hope the American Jewish community would be at the forefront of standing up for the freedom and equality of a religious minority looking to exercise its legal rights in the United States, rather than casting aspersions on its funders and giving in to the fear-mongerers and pandering politicians urging it to relocate.

What better ammunition to feed the Osama bin Ladens of the world and their claim of anti-Muslim bias in the United States as they seek to whip up global jihad than to hold this proposal for a Muslim religious center to a different and tougher standard than other religious institutions would be.

It's sweet; it's simple; it's inherently American. And it's what every Democrat should be saying. But they're not. And needless to say, Blue Dogs are leading the way into fear and loathing. Just the way Arizona Blue Dog Gabrielle Giffords has decided to campaign against Latinos in her desperate, undeserved bid for reelection, upstate New York Blue Dog, Mike Arcuri, is trying out the Islamophobia:

Richard Hanna, the Republican congressional candidate in NY-24, was the rare Republican who supported the proposed Cordoba House plans. That is, until his Democratic opponent, incumbent Rep. Michael Arcuri, announced his own opposition to the "Ground Zero mosque."

Now, Hanna says that "building a mosque near Ground Zero is insensitive."

Originally, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reports, Hanna said on August 9 that "it's extremely easy to understand why people are upset by this, but this country was founded by people who were running away from religious persecution. So how can we become what we have beheld and found contemptible other places?"

Yesterday, Arcuri released the following statement:

As district attorney, I spent my career protecting victims' rights, and to me, this is no different. The pain felt by many Americans from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is still very real, and I can understand how the thought of building a mosque near Ground Zero could reopen those wounds. For the sake of the victims and their families, I think another location should be chosen.

If ever a district needed a third party candidate with a spine, it's got to be NY-24!

Yesterday Glenn Greenwald waved a red cape in front of me. It had Chris Carney's name on it, an old nemisis of both of ours. What Glenn was pointing out is that Carney is looking like a loser this year with a new poll showing Tom Marino beating the deceitful Blue Dog 52-37%. But going down Greenwald's list of endangered Democrats, all the ones trailing Republicans are Democrats who have turned off the base by voting with the GOP on crucial issues: Suzanne Kosmas (FL), Kathy Dahlkemper (Blue Dog-PA), Mark Critz (PA) and Tom Perriello (VA)-- or by being too corrupt even for Congress: Paul Kanjorski (PA) and Kosmas (again). There are so many bad candidates running-- and they'll not all Republicans... even if all Republicans are bad candidates (and they are).

I was happy to see a coalition of Ohio labor groups campaigning against Blue Dog Zack Space (OH) after his anti-Choice and anti-healthcare votes. In a few hours we'll explain some more about why we're opposing Blue Dog Gabrielle Giffords' reelection. And even the wonderful guys at J Street don't always get it right. Their endorsement list includes some wonderful and courageous candidates like John Conyers (D-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jared Polis (D-CO), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Carol Shea Porter (D-NH), Mike Honda (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Bob Filner (D-CA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH), and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) but they not only include a bunch of Blue Dogs like Scott Murphy (NY), Betsy Markey (CO), Jim Cooper (TN) and Kathy Dahlkemper (PA), but they even decided to endorse... Lord Boustany (R-LA)! Yes, Lord Boustany, a notorious corporate whore who is also one of the creators of the birther movement! And... even Blue America once endorsed Chris Carney and Mike Arcuri (but never Gabby Giffords); we're more careful and discerning because of that. And we're watching how politicians answer the so-called mosque question. Remember, you can build a Catholic Church next to a playground. Should you? Or is it a little too soon for that?

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